Is Slash Looking at Me?

[PixelRabbit]

Hubby and I went to a concert this weekend and the headliner on Friday night was Slash.

I ended up editing a few tonight.
I say he's lookin' at me in this one (ok, in my general direction at least lol) It was at the end when the lights came up a bit and he was tossing pics to the crowd.

 

[PixelRabbit]

Good morning bump, would love some feedback on this one so I can use any suggestions offered when I edit the rest.

I'm on my iPod so can't check the settings but they will be in the range of:
F5.6
ISO1600
1/250(ish)
And pretty much using every mm I had available on my 18-200

 

[pixmedic1 1]

Slash totally wants you. hes shooting you his best "come back stage after the show" look. hope you took advantage of that opportunity. :mrgreen:

 

[Derrel]

I think he is looking at the blonde bimbo type a few rows above you, and to your right. He's not into classy brunettes like you...too demanding...he likes 'em vacuous and naive.

 

[PixelRabbit]

This is why I love you guys <3 lol

 

[bigtwinky]

General feedback on the shot?


Its way dark and for show photos, I so much prefer some sort of action or emotion. And for an epic Slash photo, getting him with his actual guitar would of been nice. I dont mind the hands of the fans, in fact, I love to try and get those as well sometimes, but pretty hard.

Looking at your settings, you need to change your metering mode. For that speed at that ISO with that aperture, your camera is not exposing properly. I'm assuming you are shooting in Evaluative mode? For shows, switch to spot metering. You dont care about the rest of the scene, you want the artist well exposed. So spot meter on them, and preferably on their face. If I remember my settings, I was probably f/3.5, 1/320, ISO 6400

I was at the same show, I'll try and dig up one of my photos as well

 

[PixelRabbit]

General feedback on the shot?


Its way dark and for show photos, I so much prefer some sort of action or emotion. And for an epic Slash photo, getting him with his actual guitar would of been nice. I dont mind the hands of the fans, in fact, I love to try and get those as well sometimes, but pretty hard.

Looking at your settings, you need to change your metering mode. For that speed at that ISO with that aperture, your camera is not exposing properly. I'm assuming you are shooting in Evaluative mode? For shows, switch to spot metering. You dont care about the rest of the scene, you want the artist well exposed. So spot meter on them, and preferably on their face. If I remember my settings, I was probably f/3.5, 1/320, ISO 6400

I was at the same show, I'll try and dig up one of my photos as well

Thanks so much Pierre, first, I took a look at your website, beautiful work!

I do have lots of shots of him with his guitar wailing away I just haven't edited them yet this was just one that I chose to edit last night and get some feedback before I do the rest, this is my first time shooting anything like this. I'll be putting up a thread with a series of shots when I'm done editing the bunch.

Hmm nope I was spot metering but I was pretty far back from the stage so it was a little tricky to keep perfectly on the subject. I will keep your comment about it being too dark in mind when I'm choosing the other "best" images though.

Looking forward to seeing your shot!

 

[fjrabon]

yeah, it's too dark, but I don't know how much you could have really done with that without going to your next ISO. You could have perhaps went down to 1/200, but that would likely be about as far as you could go without losing sharpness. And, I'm assuming you're shooting crop frame, so even that would be pushing it if you don't have VR (the reciprocal focus guide is actually for full frame, so to get good sharpness without VR you probably want like 1/300, so 1/250 was probably a good compromise, with VR you could maybe get down to 1/180 or so, if you have very steady hands).

You found out why concert photography is essentially a no win situation in a lot of ways. It doesn't pay much, everybody wants to do it, the lighting is really unpredictable unless you're really experienced and you need really expensive gear, haha. f/5.6 is a tough go for concert photography.

 

[bigtwinky]

You were in spot? Hmm... weird. I guess if you pegged his hat instead of his face, seeing as you were further out..

To fit your theme of "is he looking at me" here's mine

 

[PixelRabbit]

Great shot Pierre! Thanks for sharing

I definitely could have hit his hat in this one for the metering, I was on my tippytoes using my hubby's steel toed boots to help me stay steady the whole time lol I'm not the tallest in the bunch. I posted a shot where I was zoomed right out where we stood in the thread I posted with some of my fav's
http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/people-photography/293301-rock-park-slash.html

yeah, it's too dark, but I don't know how much you could have really done with that without going to your next ISO. You could have perhaps went down to 1/200, but that would likely be about as far as you could go without losing sharpness. And, I'm assuming you're shooting crop frame, so even that would be pushing it if you don't have VR (the reciprocal focus guide is actually for full frame, so to get good sharpness without VR you probably want like 1/300, so 1/250 was probably a good compromise, with VR you could maybe get down to 1/180 or so, if you have very steady hands).

You found out why concert photography is essentially a no win situation in a lot of ways. It doesn't pay much, everybody wants to do it, the lighting is really unpredictable unless you're really experienced and you need really expensive gear, haha. f/5.6 is a tough go for concert photography.

Thanks fjrabon, it was definitely a challenge! I had a blast shooting it but realized quickly that to get some really awesome shots I should be closer especially with my lowest fstop being 5.6, I think I hit about the best balance of settings for what I was working with.
I'm pretty happy with the shots I got all things considered (even if they appear to be "meh" to the masses here judging by the lack of responses in the other thread lol)